Thinking Back
by WardensWomb
Summary: Implies PeinxZetsu. Zetsu thinks back on his familylike relationship with Pein as he watches the man die in front of his eyes. Rated T for elements of death, and minor gore. Small musings about the afterlife included. Sequel finished as well.


Watching from the shadows, golden eyes of mystique blinked. With a gut-wrenching scream the man he had considered a 'leader' fell to the ground. His corpse lay with little motion, heart still faintly beating. His chest still rose slowly. Up, down, up, down. It started to slow, blood still gushing from a few major wounds to the stomach. Slowly Zetsu arose, stepping from the shadows of the forestry to approach Pein. The Konoha ninja stared at Zetsu as if he were some monstrous figure. He could already feel the burning eyes that had set sight on him. They ripped into his flesh, and clawed into his soul. He knew what they were thinking.

_Monster... beast.. monstrosity.. __**inhuman**_

Zetsu came to kneel at his leader's corpse. Two fading, glaring eyes came to soften at sight of the subordinate. There were no words, just a stare between the two. The Konoha-nin who stood so quietly decided this wasn't nearly as dangerous as it had seemed at first. Hell, he _had_ just killed Pein. Six times, in fact. Yes. He had single-handedly ended the life of a very powerful man not only once, but six times. However, he was now woozy and felt like keeling over. In fact, his vision was blurred and he was simply waiting for a light to wash over it.

He took a kunai; his last kunai and threw it at Pein's barely-breathing body. Zetsu looked up at the kunai and made no attempt to stop it. It'd be rude to let Pein live on through this wretched pain, would it not? He'd be dead soon anyway. Pein gave one last questioning look before the kunai cut through the air and into his exposed neck. His odd eyes slowly came to roll into the back of his eyes, and the unnamed ninja from Konohagakure no Sato fell over on que. Zetsu stood as it slowly began to rain.

Well, it would come to seem that he was the last member of the once famed Akatsuki left. The most mysterious member; the spy. Maybe that was the reason he wasn't dead yet? The fact that he was a spy rather than capturing bijuu? Hah. Pein thought he could protect the precious little seed from the world by giving him such an easy position within the organization. And to be truthful, it really did hide the plant away. It hid him in a sheltered area so he could blossom into a beautiful plant. Now look at him.

Yet, with his master gone, who would be there to care for him? To water him? To tell him where he was to go? To forever watch over him?

_No one._

Is this how Pein had planned it all to be? To watch over the plant so gingerly. To act as if they were family, and that he really cared. Then to just have his life ripped away and leave the plant without his safe pot of security? It almost made Zetsu mad, thinking of it in that sense. Yet, his teeth did not grit. His fists did not clench. His eyes did not water, and his breath certainly did not reduce to sobs.

Instead he simply looked at the lifeless, bleeding corpse as it lay before him. Usually a corpse mean a meal for Zetsu. However, he decided against defiling the body by devouring it. Zetsu wasn't a machine, devouring whatever he found. No, that was immoral and taboo. He did not simply eat someone he respected. Instead he would bury them when given an opportunity. Sometimes he did not get a chance to bury them properly, and merely set their body to lay within the ground. Bodies did not mater when it came to death, he had decided long ago.

_The afterlife is a curious thing, is it not? _Ah, he could recall Pein's words on that boring mid-summer day. Akatsuki was still relatively new, and Zetsu was still one of the first members there.  
_**Afterlife? What in the world are you talking about?**_  
_What, you don't wonder what happens when you die?_  
_**I've never really considered it before, so no.**_  
_Ah. I theorize that after you die your spirit will promptly rise from the worn out body, and that it will find another one to imprison. Sort of like possession, but the body that it finds must have a 'dead soul'. You know, the people who seem to have no ambitions, goals, nothing to live for, and pretty much exist to take up room? Yeah. You take over their body._  
_**So I've had a body before this, and I didn't know about it? Do you lose all memories that you've had of your other life when you switch bodies?**_  
_Not exactly. You're born into a body, and once your original body dies then you start the transition from body to body. I think you're still in your original body, Zetsu. You only lose the memories of pain and despair when you switch bodies. You get to keep all of the good and happy memories, thankfully. Make sense?_  
_**Ah, I see. That's some theory you have there. Are there.. other people who follow this belief?**_  
_I haven't the fondest clue. It's just what my mum told me while I was growing up. I like to think there are others out there, but I'm pretty sure I'm one of the few left._  
_Then.. I'll believe it too._

Zetsu blinked, snapping back into reality. " **We can't bury him in the rain... **" " _There are trees here. We'll just have to bury him under one of those. The trees will not mind; it means more nutrition to the soil around them._ " For once Zetsu found himself not arguing with the decision. Instead he simply picked up the cold dead body and started back into the forestry. Before stepping back into the darkness, he looked over his shoulder at the passed Konoa ninja. His eyes held no bitterness, and no grudge or anger. Just a glance at the body.

The deceased ninja would not be eaten either, he had decided, for he had pulled off a feat Zetsu had thought impossible. It wasn't easy to even injure Pein, much less kill all six of his bodies. For that Zetsu respected the ninja he did not know. There would be no burial for the ninja, however. For you see, burials were sacred things. Zetsu didn't feel very safe burying someone he did not know. An animal would find the body in good time, so there was no need to worry over it. With those last thoughts Zetsu turned his head back around and continued into the shadows.

_Now what? What's left?_

**We have each other, but not much more.**

_It seems that time will come to pass.._

**And we'll be forgotten with the wind.**

_What was meant to keep us safe.._

**Will end up killing us..**

_So it seems._


End file.
